For years, Everwild felt more like a ghost than a game. Announced in 2019, Rare’s next big multiplayer title quickly ran into problems throughout its development, soon becoming another victim of the infamous development hell.
Shifts in internal leadership and reports of a creative reboot in 2021 haunted the game until it finally met its demise as part of the massive restructuring wave that hit Xbox this year. Given that work on the game reportedly began in 2014, it would have been in development for over a decade before its cancellation. So while it’s no surprise that Xbox ultimately axed the project, the loss remains a shame nonetheless.
Throughout this troubled cycle, the only things we ever received were two cinematic trailers. But if you thought we had seen the last of Everwild, think again. We’ve since stumbled upon a collection of development screenshots that offer a brief glimpse into the project, revealing details about game features and a good look at the UI.
UI and Screenshots for Rare’s Everwild
The gallery originates from the website of an artist who worked on the game, and the images come from a version relatively close to its cancellation.
While the screenshots mainly showcase work done for the interfaces, we can also spot other elements, such as in-game captures that follow the distinctive visual style seen in the trailers, including the player character standing near a large, marked stone circle on the ground, and another in which she can be seen in front of some kind of temple.
Within the UI, we get a detailed look at the inventory screen, which features six distinct tabs: Favourites, Figments, Tools, Mosaics, Seeds, and Plants. Beyond the standard Tools and the Favourites quick-access bar, the other sections are far more interesting.
The Figments tab, for instance, displays small and colorful creatures, one of which is specifically labeled as a “Light Figment,” suggesting a system for collecting or utilizing these creatures. Equally interesting is the Mosaics tab, which we can speculate would have served a decorative purpose. Some of these mosaics depict characters and animals previously seen, including the deer-like creature featured in the trailers.
In another capture, we get a closer look at the Plants tab (sometimes referred to as the Seeds tab). This section is largely self-explanatory: an area dedicated to various seeds used for planting, featuring a “Shrub Seed”, and indicating that players would have had access to a plant compendium.
Other interface details are mentioned on the website and reveal that Rare would have leveraged player data from Sea of Thieves when designing Everwild’s settings system. According to the artist, this was done to understand which configurations players most frequently interacted with.
Unfortunately, it’s hard to know where Rare will go after the cancellation of Everwild. Part of the Everwild workforce will likely be relocated to Sea of Thieves (not counting the people laid off), lending further support for the live service title.
But if we are hopeful, this cancellation might offer an opportunity for Rare to revive some of its iconic franchises, such as Banjo-Kazooie or Killer Instinct. Interestingly enough, rumors from a few years ago indicated that new games for both of those franchises were in development. Now, we can only wait to see if either of these new entries will ever materialize.
Another former Rare-developed game recently made rounds here on MP1st as well, as gameplay details and concept screens of Xbox’s cancelled Perfect Dark reboot surfaced recently.
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